Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition

“It’s Speedy Tuesday!” This was the comment appearing under one of Robert-JanBroer’s Facebook pictures (he is the founder of the Fratellowatches website) in May2012. From that moment onwards, every Tuesday, the members of the Speedmaster fan community have been publishing pictures of their Moonwatch on social media using the very same #speedytuesday hashtag. Before talking about the timepiece itself, I would like to highlight a very important social element connected to it; the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition was the first watch being sold on the Omega website. On 10th January 2017 (it was Tuesday of course) Omega published on its own social media profile the picture of the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition with a link from which readers could pre-order the timepiece. It was also the beginning of a speed race that quickly saw the 2012 available pieces selling out in 4 hours, 15 minutes and 43 seconds.

Alaska Project III

This was Omega’s source of inspiration for the crafting of its special Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition. Alaska was the code-name of the secret project developed in collaboration with NASA, whose aim was the creation of watch dedicated to the space mission of the US space agency. The watch was meant to have top resistance and readability characteristics and the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition takes inspiration – and brings back – many vintage details that highlight this link to the original project, in particular with the Alaska Project III. Let’s start from the beginning.

The case is the typical case of the Speedmaster Moonwatch measuring 42mm in diameter, it features curved lugs with satin finishing, including on the chronometer’s buttons, the winding crown and on the bezel with a tachymetric scale. The satin finish is clearly inspired to the Alaska Project that aimed at minimizing light reflection so as not to compromise the watch’s readability; the same detail can be found on the three counters too, which are also satin-finished.

If we now move to the dial, we can see that this sports the Omega logo in an applied vintage style and the “Omega Speedmaster Professional” writing too that is covered with glowing material (as never before seen feature on a Speedmaster). The same thing can be said of the radially-arranged counters of the small seconds and of the chronograph function that grants the user a perfect readability thanks to the contrast created by the small black hands.

Another new feature of this Speedmaster is its “reverse panda” dial that looks quite #stunning or #gorgeous (if we were to use the comments that were most-commonly used when the timepiece was first launched on social media). The glass is the typical glass of the Moonwatch; it is made of hexalite and it sports the Omega logo in the middle, on the case-back is the seahorse logo surrounded by writings designed exclusively for this limited edition; “Speedy Tuesday Anniversary Limited Edition”, “A tribute to Alaska Project III”, “RADIAL” and, of course, the serial-number individually applied to each one of the 2012pieces manufactured.

The movement couldn’t be anything else but the manual Omega 1861 caliber that derives from the 321 caliber and that actually landed on the moon. Now that we mentioned the landing on the moon, we should also mention that the “Professional” writing first appeared when the Speedmaster was chosen by NASA for its 1965 Apollo missions. Omega, however, had introduced the writing in 1964 already with its 105.012 reference.

The Omega Speedmaster Professional “Speedy Tuesday” Limited Edition comes in a watch-holding-bag made of brown leather and is equipped with two straps and the special tool needed to replace the straps. Omega’s vintage logo can also be found on the buckle of the standard brown leather strap that can be replaced by a NATO strap in dual colour (black and white) and sporting the #speedytuesday hashtag that is laser-etched on the strap loop. The lucky buyers of this timepiece will also get a book written by Robert-JanBroer in collaboration with Omega, where the authors recall the history of the Speedmaster in its different versions and editions. Don’t panic if you are not among the 2012 lucky buyers of this timepiece as you will still be able to download a PDF version of the book from the Fratellowatches website.

Different story for the timepiece itself; when it was first launched, its retail price was 5,400 euro and if you are still wondering if you can get your hands on one of these watches, let us tell you it is still possible to do so, but, on average, you will have to fork out not less than 8,000euro a piece! The Speedmaster might have been the first and only timepiece that landed on the moon, but the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch Speedy Tuesday Limited Edition was the first timepiece that broke the barrier between social media and luxury watches and also the remarkable demonstration of the pioneering spirit of the Omega brand; definitely one of the most active brands on social media and clearly the most innovative of them all, not only when it comes to products making, but also when it comes to communication!